Monday, 20 January 2014

Last Saturday we danced in Aalsmeer “Dens Gala International” in The Netherlands. In our category the Senior I A standard, we were with 10 couples and we won the competition. We were happy with our dominance on the floor, the end result and the quality of our Ballroom dancing.

This is a very popular event and became the best organised NADB competition of 2012. It was no surprise that there were many participants in all age classes. As a consequence you are in for a long evening and night. The more participants, the longer the evening will last. This year the event was organised in the dance training centre “CanDance Studio’s”, a fabulous place.

After our World open competition in Madrid, we learned a lot and applied these principles to this competition. In the first round we received 29 marking out of 35, which was very good. Since we didn’t have to redance, we had a break of four hours. We made sure to warm-up again before the semi-final around midnight. This also went well and we received 34 marking out of 35 for the final. Almost the maximum score and we were placed into the final as highest ranked couple.

Around 1:30 at night we danced our final. No, we were not tired; the adrenaline gave us a high energy level. We gave ourselves several focus points and they materialised in the final. We won all five dances and were super pleased even dough we only arrived home at 4:00 in the morning. Next week we dance in Nalinnes, a BDSF competition to qualify for the Belgian Championship.

Oh, my gosh - it's like marathon! I don't know how you stand the tension and the hours between the dances. Do you wait around and watch the other couples or go back to the hotel and rest? I hope someone got a good video. Congratulations!